Monday 29 April 2013 09.11 EDT
First published on Monday 29 April 2013 09.11 EDT

The newspaper industry's audacious bid to launch a new press regulator backed by its own royal charter is doomed to failure unless it wins the support of David Cameron, a constitutional expert has warned.

Robert Hazell, director of the constitution unit at the school of public policy at University College London, said the privy council, which awards royal charters, will not issue two for the press.

"They [newspapers] are not going to get their own royal charter. They are doomed to failure unless ministers support their alternative charter. That's the only way to succeed," Hazell added.

One of the key differences with the government royal charter was that it removed the need for a two-thirds majority of both houses of parlimament before any changes could be made, something editors feared lays newspapers open to future political interference.

The three main groups behind the plan, the publishers of the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Sun, devised their rival proposal after obtaining legal advice that any profession could apply for a charter of its own.

Some newspaper executives were also briefing that the privy council's own rules meant the government's charter itself was dead in the water because of a clause which says any charter application "rendered controversial by a counter-petition is unlikely to succeed".

However, Hazell said it is nothing as complicated as that. The privy council, which is made up of the cabinet office and hundreds of others including former judges and former ministers and senior politicians, merely rubberstamps parliament's wishes.

"They are signing-off meetings. Increasingly they are held standing up so that they keep the business very brisk. There will be a team of three to five privy councillors including whoever has been detailed to go from the relevant government department – in this case Maria Miller, the culture secretary. The business all goes through on the nod," he added.

"The government will ultimately do what it decides to do, so the key politicians to watch are Maria Miller and Cameron. If Cameron wobbles, then Miller will probably wobble. So the real issue, if anything, is whether the government keeps its resolve. That's the space to watch."

Cameron has said he was very happy to look at the newspaper industry's rival royal charter proposal and his aides said he needed time to examine the gaps between what the parties had agreed and the industry was proposing.

Aides to the culture secretary, Miller, suggested the government was not going to abandon its plans, saying its royal charter had cross-party backing following 21 weeks of discussion.

John Whittingdale, the influential Tory chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, has urged David Cameron to abandon the government plan and grab the proposal "with both hands".

He told the Sun on Sunday: "I could almost sign up to this tomorrow."

Whittingdale said it was a mistake that the was were excluded from the late night meeting that led to all three parties agreeing their own royal charter, but that Hacked Off was involved.

"It is unfortunate that an agreement was reached between three political parties and a campaigning organisation but the people who would be affected by it – the press – were not in the room or given a chance to express their view," he added.

The press and politicians had thrashed out an agreement on February 12 but the agreement sealed on March 18 was significantly different in parts.

The newspapers said the original government royal charter unveiled in March and endorsed by parliament "has no support within the press". They went on: "A number of its recommendations are unworkable and it gives politicians an unacceptable degree of interference in the regulation of the press."

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